Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Jessika Stewart, of Sweet Home, got a first-hand look at leadership, current and historical, on a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
She was nominated to attend the 2006 Junior National Young Leaders Conference by her sixth-grade teacher, Marcia Carper at Holley Elementary.
Jessika, 12, will enter the seventh grade in September. She’ll take an arsenal of historic information with her as she moves into junior high.
“We just really learned about historical leaders, like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington,” she said. Youths from around the nation visited a number of historical sites, and they also got to sit down with people from the Capitol and ask questions about world events.
“We got to go to the Capitol Building,” Jessika said. “We got to go to the Lincoln Memorial,” along with all of the war memorials, including Vietnam, Korea and more. They also visited the Supreme Court building and Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home.
They were able to visit the outside of the White House and take pictures, she said. “And we actually got to see the president land in his yard.
“That just all impressed me,” Jessika said. At the Vietnam Memorial, “it kind of touched me to see all the names. When we walked through we had to be quiet because people were there paying their respects.”
She said the trip was one of the greatest weeks of her life.
“It was really fun. When I’m at school, we just learn out of a book. (On the trip) we learned so much about history, and they (high school leaders) showed it to us in a way we understand. I’ve learned about all these people, but actually getting to go see George Washington’s house was so cool to me.”
Stewart is the daughter of Joey and Randy Stewart of Sweet Home. Her parents and brother, Garrett, didn’t directly join her trip, but they did take a parallel trip of their own, including visits to local memorials, historic sites and the Smithsonian Institute.
The leadership conference included more than 1,000 students who divided into groups of six bus loads, Joey Stewart said. They would come back from field trips around the area and attend workshops each day of the conference to hone their leadership abilities.
“That’s when we got to learn about the different leadership traits and how to express them,” Jessika said. Those included respect, teamwork, goal setting, character, problem solving and communication.
Broken into groups, the students had to pick a “top leader” in American history. Her group picked George Washington.
She was impressed by “the way he did stuff in the war, all the things he accomplished in life,” she said.
“I learned he was a giving person, somebody who did good for our country.”